The concept referred to as “professional identity” needs to
be clarified before one can appreciate its significance to a lawyer’s
development and its connection to the ancient concept of phronesis, or
practical wisdom. Scholars have already had difficulty agreeing on a definition
of “professionalism.”[1]
It should be no surprise, then, that
“professional identity” has required clarification. The phrase is not clearly
defined even within the seminal reports introducing the concept.[2]

One thing, however, is clear: professionalism and
professional identity formation are not the same thing. Although lawyer
professionalism has been defined in various ways, its focus historically has
been on the outward conduct the legal profession desires its members to
exhibit.[3]
Lawyer professionalism has often
referred to adherence to standards or norms of conduct beyond those required by
the ethical rules, and the focus of the current discussion of professionalism
largely remains on outward conduct like civility and respect for others.[4]

Civility and respect for others are undeniably important to
a lawyer’s professional identity,[5]
but professional identity engages lawyers at a deeper level because it
challenges lawyers to internalize principles and values such that their
professional conduct flows naturally from their individual moral compass.
Professional identity therefore encompasses the manner in which a lawyer
internalizes values such that, for instance, she views herself as a civil
person who treats others with civility and respect even in hotly disputed
matters. The only difference between a lawyer told to be professional who acts
in this way and one who acts this way because of her professional identity is
that the lawyer herself believes that this is the way she should act.
Incorporating “identity” into the description of this concept thus is central
to the innovation it brings.[6]
It reflects the difference between
someone who acts because an external influence (such as a bar association or
judge) says that is how she “should” act and someone who has internalized those
standards and herself believes that is how she should act.

After discussing the struggle to articulate the deep meaning
of “professional identity,” one scholar offers the following definition:
“Professional identity refers to the way that a lawyer integrates the
intellectual, practical, and ethical aspects of being a lawyer and also
integrates personal and professional values. A lawyer with an ethical
professional identity is able to exercise practical wisdom and to live a life
of satisfaction and well-being.”[7]
Others have recognized that engaging
students in this process of professional identity development “put[s] students
up against the fundamentals of who they are, what they want the world to be,
and their role in, and responsibility for, creating both.”[8]

[3] The
professionalism movement in the American legal system has its own history. The
movement can be traced to the ABA’s Commission on Professionalism, prompted by
the urging of then Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. See, e.g., Donald J.
Weidner, The Common Quest for Professionalism, 78 FLA. B.J., March 2004, at 18,
18. At its August 1988 meeting, the ABA House of Delegates further encouraged
this movement by adopting as a policy that state and local bar associations
“encourage their members to accept as a guide for their individual conduct, and
to comply with, a lawyers’ creed of professionalism.” THOMAS D. MORGAN & RONALD
D. ROTUNDA, 2015 SELECTED STANDARDS ON PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY 661 (2015).
The Commission has helped state bar associations throughout the country adopt
statements on professionalism and civility. A recent 2011 count indicates that
thirty-two states have adopted official statements on professionalism. See
Donald E. Campbell, Raise Your Right Hand and Swear to Be Civil: Defining
Civility as an Obligation of Professional Responsibility, 47 GONZ. L. REV. 99,
107 & n.53 (2011) (listing jurisdictions that have adopted statements on
professionalism).

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Beyond the Rule is a blog recognizing that teaching a person to be a lawyer involves educating the whole person, and in particular assisting the law student to form a moral compass so that the student is more likely to develop a professional identity and practice law ethically.